Liberal Chinese magazine sues government after takeover

Wang Yanjun, deputy editor of the liberal magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, holds up the latest issue that was printed under the names of Wang and other editors ousted by the Ministry of Culture which forcibly replaced the top executives and seized the magazine's office in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. The ousted editors of the liberal Chinese magazine are suing the government in an effort to wrest back control of one of the country's best-known political journals. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (The Associated Press)

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Ding Xikui, a lawyer representing seven high-level editors of Yanhuang Chunqiu, talks to journalists outside a courthouse in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. The ousted editors of the liberal Chinese magazine are suing the government in an effort to wrest back control of one of the country's best-known political journals. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (The Associated Press)

BEIJING – The ousted editors of a liberal Chinese magazine are suing the government in an effort to wrest back control of one of the country's best-known political journals.

A lawyer representing seven high-level editors of Yanhuang Chunqiu, Ding Xikui, said Tuesday that the former staffers are seeking damages after the Ministry of Culture last month forcibly replaced top executives, seized the magazine's offices and published an issue under their names.

Founded in 1991 by senior members of the Communist Party's liberal wing, the magazine amassed a following by examining sensitive historical periods such as the Cultural Revolution and advocating gradual political loosening.

The struggle for the journal's reins comes at a time when President Xi Jinping's administration is quashing dissent and revisionist voices.